


We Are Not Shining Stars

by lls_mutant



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Firefly
Genre: Caprica Resistance, Crossover, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-06
Updated: 2013-02-06
Packaged: 2017-11-28 10:18:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lls_mutant/pseuds/lls_mutant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be a routine drop on Caprica, before the Cylons attacked.  Now the crew of <i>Serenity</i> are among the survivors, but surviving isn't all that easy, especially when two of their own disappear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Not Shining Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skieswideopen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skieswideopen/gifts).



> Thanks to infinitamo for looking this over!

Caprica spun beneath them, blue and green and hazed with pollution. "I don't like it," Zoë said flatly, staring down at the planet. 

"I don't either, but that's where we're headed." Mal was putting on a light front. "Wash? How's our course?"

"Looking good from here. Want me to wave Patterson and let him know we're here?"

"How long 'til touchdown?"

"I give it twenty minutes."

"Not yet. No sense letting people know we're around before we need to."

"No sense being here at all, sir," Zoë muttered. 

Mal glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Money's too good. And in case you ain't noticed, we could really use that right now. I'm thinking that-" the ship rocked violently, sending Mal flying into Zoë. She caught him just in time and righted them both. "What the frak was that?" Mal demanded.

Wash was flipping switches and turning on sensors. "Not a clue. I'm seeing some-" _Serenity_ bucked again, although this time they were all more prepared. 

"Wash- land us. _Now._ " 

"Not sure I've got much of a choice," Wash said, gripping the controls. "Looks like we're going down no matter what I say."

"We gonna crash?"

"If by crash you mean 'have an extremely rough landing that might tear a few holes in _Serenity_ 's hull', yeah. Probably."

" _Xiàng gāowán_ , well make it so that don't happen!"

"I'm trying." Wash's teeth were gritted as he struggled with the controls. Zoë looked out the front window again to see the ground coming up very, very fast. "I see an open- _āiyā shénshèng_. What the frak?"

It must have been a hundred miles away, but a hundred miles didn't seem all that much right now. A thick pillar of smoke blossomed from the ground, the unmistakable sign of nuclear detonation. "Sir?" Zoë asked, pointing. "You see that?"

Mal stared, slightly open mouthed, and then pointed the opposite direction. "There's another one over there, too. I'm thinking that landing might not be what we want to do."

"No choice," Wash said, and two seconds later _Serenity_ was scraping across the ground. Zoë missed catching the beam and went sprawling across the floor. Mal was caught himself against a wall, and Wash was still in his seat, his hands wrapped so tightly around the controls that the knuckles were white. Finally, _Serenity_ came to a stop. Wash fell back in his seat, gasping. 

"What the _lǘ dìyù_ happened in here?" Jayne appeared in the doorway, blood running down one side of his face. Zoë knew the second he looked out the front, because his scowl disappeared and his eyes widened, his face went pale, and his mouth went slack. Not for long, though. "And what the _lǘ dìyù_ is happening out there? Why the frak ain't we getting off this rock?"

"That's a good question, and I'm pretty interested in the answer myself. Wash?"

"No can do, Mal. The screens…" Wash trailed off, and Zoë bent over his shoulder to look. _Serenity_ used a modified DRADIS system for sensing other ships and avoiding collisions, and what it reflected now….

"Oh my- _ǎi wú dì wǒmen zài jiānghuì yǔnluò._ " Mal shook his head. "We are humped."

"I think the whole frakking planet is humped," Wash said. He typed something into the console. "Actually, I think humped is an understatement. These bombs are all over the planet!"

Zoë looked over his shoulder, and as she began to understand what she was seeing, she reached out and wrapped her arms around him. Because they were almost certainly going to die. Wash covered her hands with his and leaned back into her embrace, and they waited for the nuclear explosions to take them all.

***

Five hours later, they were still alive.

The others had all made their way to the cockpit, and were watching out the window as well. After the nuclear blasts had come ships streaking across the sky. They weren't ships that Zoë had ever seen before, especially the crescent shaped ones. They all flew in perfect formation, and even from their great distance they could see that the ships were raining destruction on those below.

"All those people," Kaylee said, tears streaking her face. She leaned into Simon. "How many people?"

"Four billion, eight hundred seventy six million, three hundred eighty two thousand, one hundred and twelve," River said. Kaylee choked on a sob and buried her face in Simon's shoulder.

"You really think them nukes are all over this rock?" Jayne asked. "I mean, we're still livin'."

"Hard to believe," Mal said, rubbing his chin. "Wash, you get anything on the comm yet?"

"Nothing new. Everything I got ended three hours ago, although it sounded like Gemenon and Scorpia have been attacked, too." Wash shifted uncomfortably and looked up at Zoë, then back to Mal. "Mal, who do you think would do this?"

"I ain't got the first idea, but I'm not sure I want to find out. Kaylee? What's it gonna take to get _Serenity_ into the air again?"

Kaylee lifted her face from Simon's shoulder. "It's not gonna take much Captain. All the damage was superficial, and _Serenity_ 's spaceworthy. It's just…." She trailed off, looking at Wash. Wash didn't pick up her train of thought, but Zoë did.

"It's just where would we be going, sir? We don't know where else has been attacked. Not to mention that if those ships are still out there-"

"We'll be blown to smithereens," Jayne finished for her. There was no smile on his face or sneer in his voice. Somehow, that made everything seem more real, when even _Jayne_ had to take things seriously.

"Not to dismiss everything else," Simon began, "but is our… client… alive? I mean, he was in an isolated area, right?"

Zoë, Wash, and Mal all exchanged looks, and then Wash picked up the communicator and punched some numbers into the console. Static. Swearing, he fiddled with the dials. "Hello? Hello? Anyone out there?"

Jayne snatched the communicator from him. "Don't do that! You don't know who's listening!"

"He's got a point," Book said. "We still have no idea who is attacking. I say that we-"

"Hello?" The comm unit crackled into life. "Hello? Come in. Who's out there?"

Wash froze, and Zoë couldn't blame him. Jayne had a point. But after a quick glance at Mal, who looked uncertain, Zoë leaned over and picked up the communicator. 

"Who is this?"

The voice at the other end was male, and just as suspicious. "Who are you? Are you Caprican?"

There wasn't much to be given away by answering the question. "Tauron. What's the situation?"

"You don't know? You really don't know?"

"Wouldn't be asking if I did know."

"Cylon attack." The man sounded ragged. Unprofessional. He was either one hell of an actor or completely untrained at field communication. "It's the Cylons."

"Cylons?" Mal leaned in. "They ain't been heard from in forty years."

"Yeah, I know, right? But I guess they're tired of keeping quiet." There was ragged breathing. "Look. I've got no idea of where you are or who you are, but you're human, right?"

"Not so sure about the Doc-" Jayne began, but Zoë silenced him with a glare. 

"We're human," she said. "Sounds like you might be, too?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we are." There was a pause, and then the speaker said, "My name's Sam Anders."

"Like the Pyramid player?" Wash asked.

"Yeah." There was a bitter laugh at the other end. "The Pyramid player. How many survivors have you got over there?"

"Nine," Zoë said. "What about you?"

"We've got the whole team plus a few- we're up to twenty-seven. Where are you?"

Zoë and Mal exchanged glances. "Why don't you tell us where you are?" Mal said. "We'll come to you."

Anders gave them a set of coordinates. Wash pulled up a map, and Zoë immediately saw that they were only a mile or so away. Mal mopped his face and made a decision. "We'll be there in an hour. But if you've got any weapons-"

"Weapons?" Anders laughed incredulously. "We're a Pyramid team. Where would we get weapons? We'll see you in an hour." The transmission terminated.

She didn't have to wait for orders- the only course of action was clear. Zoë got up and started rooting through the weapons lockers, pulling out what they had. Wash was still sitting at the console, tapping his chin. "You don't think they were the Caprica Buccaneers, do you?" He looked to Book and then Jayne. "Seriously? The Caprica Buccaneers?"

"Don't matter who they are," Mal said, loading a gun. "We're still going armed."

***

The coordinates were a camp, with modern log cabins, green fields with trees all around, and Pyramid training fields. The place was set high in the mountains, with what used to be a beautiful view of Delphi. Well, if you could call Delphi beautiful- Zoë had never liked Caprican cities. Too Colonial, too controlled. Although she'd ever wanted something like _this_ to happen. 

"It really is Sam Anders," Inara told Mal as they got closer. "I recognize him."

"Oh yeah? Was he a client?" Mal asked, and not very nicely.

"Hardly." Inara sounded lofty and amused. "I was a Picon Panthers supporter. I would never contract with a C-Buc. But I enjoyed the games."

Fortunately, Anders approached them before Mal could make a retort. He was a handsome man, with an open, friendly face despite the grief and strain that already marked it. He took the group in with a glance and immediately extended his hand to Mal.

"Sam Anders," he said, and gestured back to a group of others. "I can do the rest of the introductions later, but this here's the Caprica Buccaneers, as well as some people who've found their way here."

"Mal Reynolds, and this is my crew." Mal looked around the camp. "Quite a place you've got here."

"Yeah, we were lucky. Too far out to be hit, too high up to have the radiation hit us quite yet." Anders shrugged.

"So what's your plan now?" Mal asked.

"Don't know for sure." Anders was tossing a Pyramid ball from hand to hand. "Like I said, there's about twenty-seven of us- thirty-six if we add in the nine of you."

"It would stand to reason that there might be others out there," Book said. "But the question remains, what do you plan to do with any survivors?"

"And not to be the voice of doom here," Simon added, "but how long can we survive? This whole planet is irradiated."

Anders shrugged again. "To be honest, we don't know yet. All we know is that Cylons attacked, and it sounds like they attacked the whole of the Colonies, not just Caprica. We've got to find out more, but as we do, we've got to stick together."

"Yeah. Give me a second, will ya?" Mal stepped back and ducked his head down to talk to Zoë. "What do you think?"

"Seems like they're in the same pile of trouble we are, sir," Zoë said. "But there's twenty-seven survivors."

"You think there's more?"

"Seems like there should be, sir. It's an awfully big planet."

"Ain't that the truth." Mal sighed and glanced back at Anders. "I'm thinking we stick around for a while. See where this takes us. Ain't much to be gained from going out on our own."

"I was thinking the same thing, sir."

"Good. So either this is the right thing to do, or we're both crazy."

"Like to be the latter, sir."

"Yeah. Probably." Mal sighed and then turned back to Anders. "Mind if we join up with you, then? I've got a feeling we're gonna have a lot of common interests coming up here."

Sam spread his hands out in a gesture of welcome. "The more the merrier." He had a warm, open smile, and Zoë had the sudden feeling that this was absolutely the right thing to do.

***

"You didn't tell them about _Serenity_ ," Kaylee said as they made their way into one of the cabins. There were bunks against the walls, and a large table with chairs in the center. The table had cans of food on it. "Shouldn't we tell them-"

"Not yet." Mal was firm. "They seem like good folk, but no sense in telling more than needs told. Not yet. No, I think _Serenity_ 's best off where she is for now."

"But we could help," Inara said. "We could transport people, we could search for survivors or supplies."

"Could, but the problem is we don't know what's out there. Whatever it is is like to kill us all, and we ain't exactly got defenses. No weapons, no FTL drive. We get ourselves spotted and we'll be shot down."

"And we only have so much tylium," Zoë added. "We better make sure we know what we're doing with it when we use it."

Inara nodded and retreated, but Kaylee still looked upset. Zoë supposed she couldn't blame her. Kaylee wasn't exactly used to the idea of war. Hell, _Zoë_ wasn't used to it on this scale. She took a can from the pile, then joined Wash on the bunk he was sitting on.

"How you holding up?" she asked him quietly.

Wash looked terrible, red eyes and pale skin and his hair standing on end. But he took the can she handed him without protest. "Guess I'm doing all right," he said finally. "Kind of hard to wrap my mind around the whole genocide thing."

"You really think it's a genocide?" The word hadn't even occurred to her.

"From what we've seen? Yeah, I'd say genocide fits. Hope I'm wrong, but it's not looking too good." He sighed. "At least it seems like the explosions have stopped. Don't know what that means."

Zoë frowned. She could come up with a lot of theories, each more grim than the last, but now probably wasn't the time to expand on them. Especially with Wash looking as bad as he did. Instead, she leaned against him, grateful for his solid warmth and the fact that, no matter what happened, they were together. It was a small comfort, but at least it was something. 

"Not sure what's going to happen tomorrow," Mal said, his voice pulling Zoë back to the group. "But I do know this- whatever happens, we're still a crew. It ain't much, and it ain't gonna help in the long run, but we've still got that."

***

They all stayed in the same cabin that night. Zoë and Wash lay in a slender bunk, wrapped around each other. At one point, Wash broke down and cried. Zoë held him tight, wishing she could cry, too, but the tears wouldn't come. This was too big.

When the cold dawn came, they both woke up to face it dry-eyed and grim-faced, together.

***

They stayed at the camp for three days. Other survivors found them, and their numbers swelled to close to one hundred. It made Zoë wonder how many other people were still alive on this planet, how many people had escaped.

Most of the survivors had only been in the woods and mountains, above the radiation. But some had stories, stories that made the skin crawl. Stories of giant robots marching through the town, stories of seeing survivors dragged out and shot. Stories of piles of human bodies, of ships sweeping through the sky, of desperate last-minute communications with others only to be cut off by screams and worse. With each survivor, it became clear that this attack was leveled against all of the Colonies, and that escaping was definitely the exception, not the rule.

"We can't stay up here forever," Anders said one night as they huddled around a campfire. "We're going to have to start thinking about moving."

"Was thinking that," Mal said. "You got any ideas?"

"We’re going to have to start by getting some more anti-radiation meds. Both my doctor and yours say that. The few we've got from your stores and the emergency kit here won't get us far."

"Sounds reasonable."

"There's two places that might have them- a hospital to the north and disaster emergency shelter to the east. You want to take one, and the C-Bucs will take the other?"

Mal nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me." He looked to Zoë for her reaction. 

"Be glad to do something instead of just sitting," Zoë said. 

"Good," Anders said. "We'll go tonight."

***

"You see anything?" Mal whispered.

Zoë flattened herself against the ground. It was dark, but who knew if that would make a difference to a Cylon. She crept forward and peeked over the ledge, shoulder to shoulder with Jayne.

The hospital was down the mountain and in the southern sector of Delphi, right on the edge of the city. The surrounding area was run down- there was graffiti on the buildings and bars on the windows. Not the best area of town. Tonight it was silent.

"Can't see much without light," Jayne groused. "Not even a streetlight."

"Neither can anything else," Zoë said, looking back over her shoulder at Mal. "Looks like we're alone, sir."

"Yeah. But keep your ears open, all right? It don't seem like there's much around here, but I wouldn't bet my life on it."

With a nod, Zoë picked up her gun and began to half-creep, half-climb down the cliff. She fumbled twice thanks to the dark, but soon enough her feet were on solid ground. She pulled out a small flashlight and swept the ground in front of her.

Immediately she wished she hadn't.

Zoë was hardly any stranger to dead bodies, even in multiples. But they'd always been soldiers. This was different. 

"It stinks," Jayne said, covering his nose with his shirt. His voice seemed unnaturally loud. 

"It would. It's been a few days" Zoë looked around. So many dead. She couldn't look at individual bodies. Not right now. They had work to do. "This way."

They picked through the streets. On some level, Zoë saw details. She saw the way doorways were caved in, cracks in buildings, overturned cars. Bodies in the streets, clotted blood and decay. She didn't let her eyes rest on them, didn't let the images go past her eyeballs and into her brain. Don't think about it, just move. The hospital was right there in front of them.

Focus. She focused on the possibility of the enemy. There were no sounds, besides Jayne and Mal. No light reflecting off metal, no flashing red eyes. That was what they Cylons had, right? Red eyes that flashed. She tightened her grip on the gun.

The front door of the hospital was wide open. "You'd think the people would have been guarding it," Jayne said.

"From what?" Zoë asked, stepping over a body. "No one knew the Cylons were coming. They died before they could do anything else."

Her steps echoed in the hospital foyer. She looked back and forth- no motion. She shined the light down a corridor, and then another. "This way."

Walk. Step over the body, around the overturned gurney. They were going to need something to carry back whatever they found. Her mind began ticking through the possibilities- coolers or bags she'd seen doctors carry before. There was the sound of retching, and she knew that it was Mal throwing up. She glanced back over her shoulder at Jayne. "Make sure he gets some water." Keep pushing forward, keep walking. 

It didn't take long to get the anti-radition meds and any others they could carry, or to raid the kitchens for foodstuffs. The sack against her back was comforting with its weight, even if the clinking of its contents raised her hair on end. All that was left was to make their way back to the camp.

They were almost back out of the city when they heard it- the sound of ships overhead. "Get down!" Mal ordered, and Zoë instantly flew to obey. She flicked the flashlight off and held her breath, pressed against the wall of the hospital. The lights of the ships grew larger, sweeping over the hospital.

" _Pǎo hóuzi_. This is not what we need right now." 

"How many of 'em do you think there are?" Jayne asked.

"I counted at least ten rows of five ships each," Zoë said. "Looks like they're landing about ten miles west of here."

Mal pressed his lips together then nodded. "Makes sense. Probably puts them right in the middle of the city. How many toasters do you think are in them things?"

"Figure they could fit at least six per ship, if not more."

"I got an idea. Let's stop sitting around doing math and get the hell out of here. We don't have anything to blow them frakkers up with, and I don't really want to be joining all these stiffs we keep stepping over right now."

"Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing," Mal said. "I think we can move without them seeing us, long as we leave the light off. Let's go."

Every move seemed loud in Zoë's ears as they ran through the streets. The bottles clinked, their footsteps echoed, and their breath came harsh and fast. But the Cylons didn't turn back, didn't seem to notice. Perhaps they weren't looking- maybe they thought no one could be left alive. Apparently, they were right.

They scrambled back up the ledge. The lights of the ships were still visible, but far in the distance. Zoë focused on the stones beneath her hands and the dirt falling into her face, trying to climb with no light but what the moon provided. Finally, the ledge gave way to forest and they were on solid ground. 

They were about a mile away from Delphi when Mal risked turning on his flashlight. Zoë avoided looking at him and focused on the ground in front of her. 

"You okay there, Mal?" Jayne asked. "You're looking kinda peaked."

"Better than what we just seen, so I ain't complaining."

"Yeah, but you're not gonna faint on us or something, are ya? 'Cause I don't want to be dragging your ass the next three miles."

"I'll be fine, Jayne. Thank you for caring."

The sarcasm in his voice made Zoë look back. "You know the world's ending when Jayne thinks of others first."

"Then the world ain't ending yet," Mal said. "Come on. Let's get back to the camp."

***

_There were old men and old women. One woman had long gray hair that spread out on the ground, like she was floating in water. There were teenagers. She'd seen two boys, huddled together. They must have been so terrified. A father protecting a child, a mother cradling a baby. Children. Of course the children were the worst. Their little limbs and their little feet and their little hands and their little fingers and oh gods, she'd stepped on one by accident and the noise-_

"Zoë!"

She jerked awake, tears streaming down her face. Wash was propped up on one elbow, hovering over her. She couldn't speak or explain- her throat was too tight and raw for words. She didn't have to. Wash opened his arms, and Zoë went to them willingly, closing her eyes as he wrapped her in his embrace. He rocked her gently, offering silent comfort and absolutely no demand for details.

She fell back asleep cradled against his chest. There were still nightmares, but this time she could bear them.

***

"Do you know where we're going?"

Zoë concentrated on getting down a particularly steep section of trail before she answered Simon's question. "Heard tell we might be heading for someplace closer to Delphi."

"Closer?" Simon skidded on the loose earth, and Zoë automatically reached up to steady him. "Thanks. Closer? Why are we getting closer to those… those _things_?"

"Where else are we going to go?"

Simon shrugged. "I don't know. Someplace… safe…." His voice trailed off. Of course it did. Out of all people, Simon knew that safety wasn't always so easy to come by. "Do you think those things are really everywhere? Even on the other planets?"

Zoë glanced back over her shoulder. "What do you think?"

They walked for a while before Simon answered. "Probably," he finally said, sounding defeated. "Otherwise, there would have been something. Some sign of fighting or some desperate signal…." 

He wasn't completely right- they were pretty cut off from the world at the camp. Chances of a signal getting to them weren't good. But he probably was right. Didn't matter much- the fact was there was a war going on, and they were all going to have to fight it. Zoë didn't think Simon would take too well to that train of thought, so she changed the subject. "How's your sister?"

Simon followed her gaze over to where River was walking with Kaylee. Kaylee looked haggard and sad, but River's face was alight with pleasure, tipped up towards the sun as it streamed through the green leaves. "She's holding up," Simon said. "I think she's glad to be off the ship, now that the Colonial government is no longer around to chase us."

"Small blessings, right?" Zoë said.

"Right." Simon managed a crooked smile. "When we get to wherever we're going," he began, and Zoë braced herself for whatever he was going to say. "We're not just setting up some little commune and trying to begin again, are we?"

Zoë stopped and turned around. Simon stopped as well. His face was pale, but there was a resolution there she hadn't noticed but had seen before in other situations. She looked him straight in the eye. "If we're right, they nuked the Colonies, killed billions of people, and destroyed humanity as we know it. Even if we're not right, they've taken out a large section of Caprica, killing everyone. What do you think?"

Simon lifted his chin. "I think fighting is the only thing left to do."

Zoë smiled, then turned back and focused on the trail. 

***

The building was set deep in the woods. Most of the windows had shattered due to the blast, but there were no bodies. Zoë couldn't remember what day the attack had happened. Had it been a school day? She shook her head. The building was in the shape of a U and there was a courtyard- a square of packed earth and scraggly plant and a few benches. It was a joyless place, but there would be a roof, running water, and possibly even generators, as well as space for them all.

"This is it," Sam announced, arms spread.

"Delphi Union High School?" Jayne read off the sign. "What do we want with a school?"

"It's perfect," Sam said. "We can use it as our home base. It's near enough to Delphi that we can get supplies, but isolated enough that the Cylons will have a hard time finding us. There's enough room for all of us. Come on."

***

The room had been a literature classroom. There were books on the walls and desks lined up in neat rows. It was just the nine of them, their crew, their family. Zoë leaned against a student's desk, Wash sat on the chair, close enough that his shoulder was against her side. Kaylee sat at another desk, hands folded in her lap and a downcast expression on her face. Inara was standing behind her, hands on Kaylee's shoulders. Jayne almost looked comical sitting in a classroom, rifling through the desk he'd chosen. The Shepherd was standing by a bookcase, flipping through one of the books. Simon stood near Kaylee, and River was perched on the windowsill, looking out at the sunlight. 

Mal was at the front, leaning against the teacher's desk. His face looked more lined and serious than usual, his arms crossed. It took a long time for him to speak, but Zoë could be patient. She knew what he was going to say.

"The situation is this: these people, Anders and all of them, they're looking to fight the Cylons. It's not gonna do much- there's maybe a hundred of us and gods know how many of them, and it obviously ain't a fair fight. Anything we do now is just a way of letting them know we ain't too happy about dying. 

"Normally, I'd be giving you a choice. Some of you ain't fighters, and there's no sin in finding safety where you can. Thing is, there ain't no safety anymore. Far as we can tell, this is what things are like all over the Colonies. Given what we've seen here in Delphi and heard over the wireless, I ain't got no cause to doubt that. The only choice we have left these days is how we die, and I aim to die giving those bastards a touch of what they deserve. More, if I can."

Wash reached up and took Zoë's hand. It was a gesture of commitment, of solidarity. Zoë laced her fingers through his and squeezed.

"I'm guessing there's going to be work around the camp for those who don't want to fight," Mal continued. "Cooking, doctoring, mechanical stuff… I don't know. Something. If you want to leave and try to find someplace else, I ain't got no call to stop you, but-"

"It's okay, Captain," Kaylee cut him off. "We're all staying." Mal paused, but no one contradicted her. He cracked a smile.

"Figured as much. Guess the best thing to do now is see what use we can all be, and how we can best kick those frakkers back."

"We're gonna need guns." Jayne's smile was almost a leer.

"And _Serenity_ ," Kaylee said. "We should get _Serenity._ "

"No, right now, _Serenity_ stays where she is," Mal said. "There's no way to bring her here without attracting unwanted attention."

"I know it may not be my place," Shepherd Book began, which meant he was about to say something he knew Mal didn't want to hear, "but you were a Sergeant in the Third Civil War on Tauron. I'm sure you could offer a lot in terms of command."

"This ain't like the war we fought in," Mal said, waving the suggestion away with his hand. "I'll be happy to help where I can, but Sam knows these people better than I do. This is his show to run."

"So he's in charge then?" Kaylee asked.

Mal's expression slipped a notch. "Didn't quite say that. Just that he's running the show. There's a difference."

No one asked what the difference was, although Zoë understood completely. "So where are we starting?" she asked. "Weapons?"

"Yeah. We're gonna make a raid on an old armory for weapons. Sam thinks that the Cylons don't know we're here yet, so it shouldn't be too hard a job. I tend to think he's right. Still, Jayne, Zoë, you two are the only ones coming with me on this."

"I'll see what I can do with the team doctor," Simon offered. "Between the two of us and the supplies you got, we should be able to cobble together some sort of infirmary."

"And I thought I saw some school vehicles out back," Kaylee offered. "I'll see if I can get 'em running."

"Good. We ain't gonna get off this rock again, but with any luck, we can at least blow a few of them off before they get us."

***

"Are you okay with this?" Zoë asked late that night as she and Wash huddled together in a nest of blankets. "I know you're not a soldier-"

"Doesn't matter what I am," Wash said, cutting her off. "I'm going to be okay with this."

"Because if you're not-"

"Zoë, I don't have a choice." Wash was smiling, but the smile didn't stretch to his eyes. Zoë hated seeing that. "I'm going to be as okay with this as everyone else is, okay? Just because I'm not a soldier doesn't mean I won't fight for what's right. I'm not afraid. Well, no, I'm terrified, but that doesn't mean I can't do it."

He was right, and it was one of the things she loved best about him. Zoë tried to relax and sank deeper into his embrace. She held him close, all too aware that she was just as terrified as he was. Not so much of her own death, but of everything she had to lose.

***

The armory was on a small Colonial base. The bodies were still there, smelling worse than before, but these didn't bother Zoë as much as the ones around the hospital. The armory itself wasn't huge, but there were more than enough weapons to keep a group of one hundred outfitted for a while. Zoë had a pretty good idea of the layout of the place and headed straight for the back. Paydirt.

"Zoë! What did you find? Anything good?" Mal stood in the doorway, grinning more than he had a right to.

"My birthday came early, sir," Zoë said, standing up from her crouching position in the dark room. "We'll want to clear this one out."

"Yeah?" Mal reached down and looked into one of the cases, then picked up a grenade and tossed it from hand to hand.

"Sir? Are you sure you want to be doing that?"

"What? The pin's still in it." Zoë glared at him, and Mal sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right." He put the grenade back in. "How much you got?"

"I think the question is more how much do you think we can take?" Zoë picked up a case. "They ain't heavy, but I don't want to be juggling too many of these."

"You haven't seen what Anders found, have you?" Mal grinned like a little kid, grabbed a crate, and gestured for her to follow him outside of the armory. Curious, Zoë obeyed.

Bright lights blinded her for a moment, and the smell of diesel fuel was strong. She started to grin as she realized what Anders had taken. Trucks. Trucks made everything so much easier, expanded their range so much further, opened so many possibilities. Trucks were exactly what they needed.

The truck pulled to a stop, and Zoë went around back to hoist her cargo in. She set the crate down, hopped up, and then froze. 

"Zoë? This crate ain't getting any lighter."

Zoë didn't move.

"That's okay. You just look around the truck and take it all in. I'll just stand here and let my arms fall off. Really, it's-"

"Sir." Her voice sounded strange in her ears. "Get up here."

Mal had to nudge her before she moved aside. He hopped up and looked around. "What? It's a truck."

"You don't notice anything, sir?" She couldn't feel her lips as she spoke.

"Should I be?" Mal looked around again. "There's benches, dents, smells bad… seems like a regular truck to me."

"It's the same make and model as the trucks that took us to the camp after Serenity Valley."

"Yeah, I know." Zoë looked at him incredulously, but Mal just shrugged, not looking back at her. "Don't carry much of a grudge against the truck, just the guys driving it. Come on. Let's get more of this stuff up here." He hopped out and headed back into the armory.

Zoë took a deep breath, then another. Slowly, the tremors in her hands and the numbness in her stomach began to fade. It was just a truck, and there were probably thousands of them in service across the Colonies. There wasn't time for this. She looked around the truck slowly, facing it, and then jumped out. There was work to be done, and no time for emotion or sentiment.

The next time she returned to the truck with a crate of explosives, she didn't look around at all.

***

The acquisition of arms was heartening. Even for people who weren't eager to go out and shoot Cylons, it meant that at least they had some sort of defense.

Zoë wasn't surprised that Wash and Book made it clear they planned on joining Mal, Jayne, and herself in fighting. Wash had made his feelings clear to her, and as far as Book was concerned, the Gods might be specific about killing people and fuzzy about kneecaps, but the Scrolls said nothing about shooting down machines. She also wasn't surprised that the other four weren't jumping to fight with them, and truth be told, she was relieved. They needed to figure out the Cylons before they added in anyone who didn't know what they were doing, and having people who hesitated in battle was only a liability. Besides, Kaylee could fix trucks and Simon could fix people- they were better off back at the school, doing what they were good at. 

And tonight, Zoë had every intention of doing what _she_ was good at. They had arms, they had people, they had a home base. It wasn't much, but it was enough. It was time to start fighting back.

***

It was dark. Only the full moon and the reflected light of Gemenon lit the forest. Zoë lay flat on her stomach deep in a ditch, gun in hand, watching. 

"How long do you think we'll have to wait?" Wash whispered.

"Would you shut your mouth?" Jayne snarled. "Ambush ain't an ambush if they here ya from a half-klick away."

"I was just asking."

Zoë laid a hand on Wash's forearm. _Shut up, honeycakes._ Wash got the message and subsided back into silence.

Zoë, Mal, Jayne, Wash, and Book were on one side of the road, Anders and his C-Bucs were on the other, lying in the brush. Scouts had told them the Cylons used this road frequently. A few deserted houses loomed up, dark shadows against the sky. 

They heard the Cylons before they saw them. It started out low, the sound of metallic feet moving in unison. Zoë gripped her gun more tightly and focused on the sound. As the footsteps came nearer, she began to hear the mechanical creaking that came with it. 

Wash began to laugh.

It was quiet, and he covered his mouth with his hand, but he was still laughing. And the worst part was, Zoë couldn't blame him. After all, this was supposed to be the army that nuked all of humanity. You'd think they could at least find some WD-40.

"Don't know what you're laughing for," Jayne whispered. "They're robots. And not the sexin' kind of robots, either. Ain't no good gonna come of this."

Wash kept laughing silently, shaking his head.

"Gonna get yerself killed," Jayne predicted. He glanced over at Zoë. "He's useless."

Zoë glared at him. "Just blowing off some steam." 

"Yeah, well, when I die 'cause of him, I'm gonna make sure to take you with me."

"We're all gonna die if you lot keep fighting like this," Mal whispered. "So shut the hell up." He peered up over the ditch and dropped back down immediately. "They're coming."

The footsteps had grown louder. Zoë held her breath and focused, forgetting everything but the battle at hand. Just her and her gun and the enemy. The Cylons were closer now. She could see flashing red lights cutting through the darkness, and huge silhouettes as the army approached. She held herself steady, waiting for the signal. Some part of her mind was vaguely aware that Wash was no longer laughing, and he was ready for the signal, too.

The first Cylons passed them, and as they did, Zoë's dinner moved up into her throat. The things were frakking huge, and nothing like what she'd seen in pictures when she was a girl. These were over seven feet tall, heavily armored, and sleek. And armed. They had to be armed. Their limbs were heavy, the single eye was red and malevolent, and their longer fingers looked like claws. Zoë had faced armies, faced men who respected no law, and been a prisoner of war. She'd never been as scared as she was in that moment.

Scared or not, there was a job to be done, and when the Cylons were in position and the signal flashed from the other side of the road, she rose up and began shooting. The gun kicked in her hands, but she held steady and fired. The smell of metal and smoke was heavy in her nostrils, and she heard a scream from the other side of the road which meant someone was hit. Then there was a warning and grenades and her feet were moving until the heat and noise of an explosion sent her flying into the dirt and grass. Shrapnel and debris rained down on her, and she turned her face to the ground to protect it.

The wave of heat receded and there was no more gunfire. "Come on!" Mal shouted, tagging Zoë on the shoulder. "Let's get the frak out of here!" Zoë struggled to her feet and looked around frantically, one thought on her mind. _Wash._

"WHOO! Is it always that great? When you get 'em?" Wash caught up to her, his face alight with joy. "Did you see how they blew up? Not that it wasn't the scariest thing in my life, because _liángshàn jūn_ are those things scary huge and scary, but we got 'em!" 

He was safe, their mission was successful. Zoë grinned back at him. "We got them." She reached out and grabbed his hand. It was warm and solid in hers, and just the feeling of it made her feel alive. "Come on. Let's get home. We need to celebrate."

"Tell me it's the sex kind of celebrating?"

"It's definitely the sex kind of celebrating."

Wash laughed, and together they ran for the truck, the fire from the explosion still burning behind them.

***

The raids continued. They got harder fast, because the resistance had lost the element of surprise. The Cylons knew that they were here, and now they were prepared. But the resistance kept fighting, and Anders grew in confidence. 

"He's not a bad commander," Mal said one night as they played cards in the center of the classroom where the crew was still staying together. "He's got more smarts than I gave him credit for."

"He was already something of a commander," Inara pointed out, pouring tea for them all. "He was a Pyramid captain."

Jayne snorted. "Yeah. Like tossing a ball around and scoring goals is anything like shootin' toasters. We got anything stronger than this?"

"No, Inara's right," Mal said, as Zoë handed Jayne a bottle of liquor without comment. "Captaining a Pyramid team ain't that different from leading a fight. There's strategy and taking in a situation, and… and…"

"Thinking fast under pressure, sir?" Zoë added, smirking a little.

"Yeah, that." Everyone laughed, and Inara handed Zoë her cup of tea. Zoë took it and sipped- the warm liquid felt good. She took the bottle of liquor from Jayne, added a bit, handed it off to Mal and then settled back against Wash.

"So," Inara said, sitting down, "when's the next raid?"

"Tomorrow afternoon," Mal answered, not looking up from his tea. "Why?"

"I thought I might come this time."

Mal put the bottle and cup down firmly. "No. Ain't no way I want you out there."

Inara's eyes narrowed. "I wasn't asking, Mal."

"And I'm telling, too. Those raids ain't no place for someone who… for someone… for someone like you!"

If possible, Inara's eyes narrowed even further. "Like me?"

"Well, yeah! Like a lady! Like… Zoë, tell her!"

Zoë shook her head, highly amused. "I'm not telling her anything, sir."

Wash took Zoë's line of thought. "Yeah. She probably shoots straighter than I do, but even if she doesn’t, it doesn't exactly take much skill to hurl a grenade."

"Jayne likes grenades," Simon muttered quietly.

"And if I remember right, sir, she can kick your ass with a sword," Zoë pointed out.

"But we ain't fighting with swords!" 

Inara had regained her composure. "Face it, Mal, you're not going to win this one. This is not a formal military situation, and you are not in charge. I'm sure Anders will be happy to have me along. This is my fight, too, and I don't intend to just sit idly by doing nothing."

"Well, don't come crying to me when you get yourself killed, 'cause all I'm gonna do is say 'I told you so'." Mal threw down his hand of cards. "I don't like it. Just making myself clear."

"Who likes anything on this rock?" Zoë asked lightly. 

"We're all gonna die soon enough anyway," Jayne said. "Might as well let everyone choose how."

Mal glared at him and Simon closed his eyes in disgust, but no one contradicted him. Zoë really hated it when she had to admit that Jayne was right.

***

The C-Bucs couldn't clean a gun any better than they could pass a ball. Zoë was sitting out in the courtyard re-doing the job and enjoying the sunshine. The planet had always been an over-regulated ball of _shēnzōng zhēngqì_ , and now it was an irradiated mess overrun with hostile forces, but sunshine was sunshine, and neither the Colonies nor the Cylons could ruin that.

"Sure is nice out." Kaylee echoed Zoë's thoughts as she lugged a box over. 

"What've you got there?" Zoë asked, peering at the box with mild interest.

"Oh, just some engine parts. For the jeeps, I mean. I guess there was a shop class here or something. Thought I could sort through and see what we've got." 

Zoë nodded and turned back to her own work. She finished the gun she was working on, set it aside, and picked up the next one. Next to her, Kaylee was obviously agitated.

"Do you think I should be out there?" Kaylee said suddenly. "I mean, fighting. Like you. Like Inara."

Zoë shrugged. "Think Jayne's got a point about how we're all going to die." She saw the distressed look on Kaylee's face and sighed, softening. "Look. It's nice to believe that we're gonna win this war or whatever, but we're not. All we're doing is giving the Cylons back some of what they gave us before we go out. If we had a chance in hell of changing anything, yeah. I might think you should be out there. But it's not gonna change a damn thing."

Kaylee nodded. It seemed like something in what Zoë said got through to her though, because she didn't cry. Instead, she said, "Wish we could get _Serenity_ back. Don't seem right, leaving her out there in the wild for the Cylons to find."

"Lot of ships for them to find before they find ours," Zoë answered.

"Yeah, I guess. Guess it don't matter much anyway. Don't even have FTL."

Zoë stopped for a minute, thinking. "Kaylee?"

"Yeah?"

"What would it take to get FTL on _Serenity_?"

"A lot of cubits, mostly. FTL drives are awfully expensive." Kaylee sighed wistfully. "Used to see 'em in the shop sometimes- there were a few ships my daddy worked on. The drives were awfully pretty."

Zoë frowned. "Well, I don't think cubits matter so much anymore. If we could get an FTL drive, could you put it on _Serenity_?"

"Well, sure. Wouldn't be more than a few hours work." For a moment hope flared in Kaylee's eyes, but it faded almost as quick as it came. "What good would it do, though? Where would we go?"

"Guess we could at least check out the other planets for sure. Make sure they really are all this bad. I don't know." Zoë hadn't realized she'd stood up. She sat back down and got back to work on her gun. "You're right. Don't matter about FTL if there's no place to go."

She wondered if they could find someplace else, someplace habitable. But she dismissed the idea immediately. _Serenity_ could only carry so much fuel, and it wouldn't get them that far. If a planet was habitable it was already a part of the Twelve Colonies, and there wasn't anyplace else to run. Zoë closed her eyes for a long minute and pushed the thought away from her. That kind of miracle wasn't going to happen.

She opened her eyes and got back to her cleaning, and Kaylee did the same. The two of them finished their work in silence.

***

The news that the Cylons could look human swept through the camp like wildfire. At first Zoë didn't give credence to it- there were scum everywhere who would serve conquerors in order to save their own skins. But Anders assured them that wasn't the case- the humanoid Cylons could look completely identical, and there were a lot of them. Logic said that Anders was right, but it still was hard to believe.

"There's no gorram way them Cylons can look like humans," Jayne said. "I mean, not just like humans. You'd know, wouldn't you? If you tried to frak one?"

"They're out to kill us all," Zoë said flatly. "I don't think that frakking is on their minds."

"Do they really look that human?" Simon asked. "I find it hard to believe that a machine could be so convincing."

"Yeah, well, Anders and the others said they do, and I ain't got no cause to doubt them." It was a mark of Mal's respect, because Mal didn't take much on faith. "Guess we'll see for ourselves soon enough."

"Is it true they brought back a human survivor?" Kaylee asked. 

"Yeah. You'd like him, Shepherd. Says he's a priest." Mal didn't look impressed by that. Interestingly, Book didn't, either, not that Zoë could blame him. "Guess we'll be seeing him around, too," Mal continued. "But all in all, not much has changed. We're still at war. The enemy just looks different, that's all."

"I wonder if they're really different inside," Jayne said, almost leering. "Can't wait to shoot one open and find out."

"Identical outward form would suggest similar, if not identical inward function," River said. "Evolution is not restricted to single species."

"Huh?"

"She says it's possible," Simon said with a sigh. "And I suppose it may well be, although I have a very hard time envisioning it. A Cylon that looks so human must be extraordinarily complicated. I can't even fathom…." He trailed off, shaking his head. 

In the end, though, Zoë agreed with Mal. Nothing had changed- the enemy just looked a little different. And given how hard those huge metal robots were to take down, maybe this meant she could take a few more with her before she died.

***

It didn't take long before she saw the humanoid Cylons. Anders was right- they really did look human, although even seeing for themselves made it hard to believe. They went down pretty easy though, so Zoë couldn't complain about that.

It seemed like they came in models, too. There was an extraordinarily attractive blond woman, tall and thin, and a more petite woman with darker skin and hair. There was also a male model, with a receding hairline and the general look of a used car salesman. "Can't figure out why any robot would want to look like that," Jayne said, and Zoë was alarmed to find herself agreeing. It was hard to tell if there were any others, which Zoë didn't like at all. Too unpredictable.

"It freaks me out," Wash said late one night when they were cuddled in their nest of blankets together. "When you shoot the human ones. They've got guts and blood and all the rest."

"Feels too close to shooting a human?" Zoë asked, running a hand up Wash's bare arm.

Wash shook his head. "Nah, not that. Just… I thought they'd be different. Like, sparks or something. Broken circuits. Not blood and guts. How does a machine get like that? Are we sure they aren't just slaves or something?"

"Slaves don't come that identical." 

Wash sighed. "Yeah, guess that's true. Still creeps me out."

"Well, get some sleep. We've got a big day of creeping you out planned for tomorrow." There was a small Fleet base nearby. Anders was hoping they could bring home some shiny new toys and some more anti-radiation meds. "Wash?"

"Yeah?"

Zoë hesitated, then asked the question that had been on her mind ever since Wash had started coming on raids with them. "You doing okay?"

"Who, me? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Wash turned on his side to face her. "Look, I know you worry about me. You think I'm not a soldier like you or Mal. And yeah, maybe I wasn't. I certainly wasn't on Tauron during the Third Civil War, and Aquaria isn't going to ever have a civil war- at least, not one outside the meeting hall. But just because I never fought like that before doesn't mean I've had objections to it. I just never had anything I really had to fight _for_."

Which made complete sense. Zoë relaxed into Wash's arms. "Good," she said, letting a smile creep over her lips. "Glad to hear it."

"Of course, I could do with a little less nightmare-inducing robots and a little more of the servant kind," Wash said. "Or the sex kind."

Zoë wished she had a pillow so she could whack Wash with it. Instead, she had to settle for using her blanket. The resultant thump was very unsatisfying, but it left them both laughing. One thing led to another, and although they had to be quiet about it, they were able to enjoy the little bit of privacy that sleeping roommates left them with. It was nights like this that made Zoë remember exactly why she wanted to stay alive.

***

Days went by, and nothing really changed.

People died, although no one from _Serenity._ Fewer people as the Resistance got better at what they were doing. Some died on the field, some on operating tables, some disappeared, not to be seen again. 

They had food. They had meds. They had weapons. Every time they were running low, they managed to find another place to raid. Zoë wondered how long they could keep it up, but they'd been going for almost two months now. Delphi was a big city- it would be a while before they ran out of supplies. And after that, there would be other cities. Other places to move to, other Cylons to attack.

There was no end in sight, but it wasn't completely hopeless. As long as she could fight, there was still something to fight for.

***

"Get down!"

Mal's voice came from across the little playground. The Centrurions advanced and fired, and Zoë hit the ground. The short brick wall that surrounded the park provided enough cover for her to reload, so she did so, calming her breathing as she jammed the ammo into place. She could hear the Centurions approaching, their constant squeaking and the heavy thud of their footsteps. Across the park, Jayne and Mal were holding one wall, and Inara and Book were on the third. The brick walls might stop bullets, but they weren't going to hold if Centurions decided to knock them down. Zoë wondered how the hell they'd gotten into this frakking mess in the first place.

There was a pause in the firing. Zoë took a deep breath, half-stood, put her gun over the wall, and fired. She was close enough that a Centurion exploded in a shower of shrapnel and sparks, and another one lurched forward and fell to the ground, twitching.

"Did they twitch? It's the twitching that gets me," Wash said as Zoë ducked back down behind the wall again. "It's just so… so…."

"Human?" Zoë finished for him. Humans twitched when you shot them.

"See, I was going to say lifelike, but I guess human works, too." Wash scooted down to the entrance to the park and peeped around the corner. A hail of bullets immediately made him pull back. "At least when the other ones act like humans when they die, I expect it."

The funny thing was, she knew exactly what he meant. Zoë had killed people before. Watching a giant hunk of metal and circuitry seem like it cared if it died or not give her goosebumps, and not in a good way. She usually solved the problem by killing another one while the first one died.

"Zoë!" Mal crawled across the park, gun in one hand and walkie-talkie in the other. "Anders says they'll be here in a few minutes. Just got to hold steady till they get here."

"You think that's going to help much, sir? They do have us surrounded."

"Yeah, but we're thinning them out." There was an explosion that made the earth shake. Mal glanced back over his shoulder and grinned. "See? Jayne's having the time of his life."

"Looks like it, sir. You think you could get him to part with a couple? Wash and I could clear out a few more on this side."

"I'll see what I can do." Mal gave her another grin- that grin that said he was actually kind of enjoying this- and crawled back across the small park. 

"You think we're going to get out of here?" Wash asked. "Or is Mal just being his usual comforting self?"

Zoë got up on her knees long enough to fire, taking out another Centurion. "Best I can figure, there's still fourteen of them out here."

Wash frowned in thought. "Do Centurions ever run out of bullets? You'd think they'd have to, right? At some point?"

"At some point. Problem is, we haven't found what that point is."

"Think we're going to today?"

"That's the idea." Zoë glanced back over her shoulder. Mal was waving that one of them should try to get over there and get the grenades. "Stay here. I'll go."

"Be back in time for supper!" Wash called after her.

It wasn't that bad crawling across the park, and Zoë wondered if she should have sent Wash and kept plugging away at the Centurions. On the other hand, it felt good to rest for a moment, and she wanted to get a good look at what the others were dealing with. Book was also headed towards Mal, likely after the same thing she was.

"What's it looking like over on your side, Preacher?" Zoë asked when she was close enough to hear him.

"When I left, there were still three Centurions, but there's a parking garage across the street. I think if we could take those three out, we might stand a chance at making it."

"Hot-wire a car and get the hell out of here," Zoë said, nodding, already thinking of how she could hold off the Centrurions that would undoubtedly follow while Wash got a truck going. "You hear Anders is coming?"

Book's face lit with relief. "Now that's news that's worth hearing." 

"How's Inara holding up?" Zoë asked. 

"She's doing fine. In fact, she-"

A loud explosion cut him off, louder than any of their grenades. Zoë ducked her head as debris rained down. "That's got to be them!" she shouted as the air cleared. Another explosion rocked the ground, and Zoë smiled. For a guy who made his living tossing a ball around, Anders was damn good at blowing things up.

"Come on!" Mal shouted. He had gotten to his feet, running in a half-crouching posture. "Let's get the frak out of here!" The Centurions were no longer firing at them, and in fact the three between the park and the garage had disappeared.

"This way," Book said, and started heading for the garage. Zoë gestured to Wash and followed. The Centurions, noticing that their prey was escaping, turned and began to fire.

"You go," Zoë ordered the others. "I'll give us cover." She dropped down behind the wall again, close to the street, and began firing. She was in no way surprised when Mal joined her, practically giddy.

"Knew he'd come through for us," Mal said, grinning as he sat against the wall and reloaded. "Although I gotta be honest, I can't say I wasn't thinking about Serenity Valley."

"Same thought occurred to me, sir." Another Centurion fell.

"But this ain't," Mal took a deep breath and rejoined her shooting, "Serenity Valley, and these fraks ain't the Colonial Fleet. In fact, I'm thinking-"

Inara's scream split the air.

Zoë didn't know exactly how she knew it was Inara so quickly. Anders always had his second with him, a woman called Barolay, and a few more of the C-Bucs were female, too. It could have been one of them. And Inara wasn't much of a screamer for Zoë to know what she sounded like in the first place. But she knew, and it froze her for a terrible moment. But Inara's scream was nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to what came next, and that was a strangled cry from Wash.

"Zoë!" Mal called, but it didn't matter. She was over the wall and running before she was even aware of it. She fired at the nearest Centruion, but it did nothing. Out of the corner of her eye she spot movement running towards her, and fortunately her senses registered that it was Anders and his crew, not humanoid Cylons. She ignored them and kept running. 

There was a flash of orange- one of the Centurions had thrown Wash over his shoulder. He hung limply, his hands stretched down towards the ground. Unconscious or dead? They never took the corpses. Zoë aimed, but then realized it was impossible to fire. There was no way she could take the Centurion down and not harm Wash. But there had to be another way. She started to run again.

A rain of bullets made her stop, and before she could do anything else, someone grabbed her arm and yanked her away and into an alley. "Come on. We've got to get out of here."

"Like hell we do. I'm not going anywhere without Wash." She pulled against her captor.

It was Anders who had her. "You can't go back out there. We don't have the forces to get them back."

Zoë narrowed her eyes. "We haven't even tried."

He sighed. "Zoë, we blow things up. That's not going to get them back- it's going to get them killed. We can't get out there."

Zoë punched him across the face. Anders went down, sprawled across the pavement, and Zoë sprinted into the street.

"No." She stared around her. "No. It's not possible."

No Centurions were in street. The park was empty. The streets were empty. 

Wash and Inara were gone.

***

Anders, his cheek already bruising, kept silent as he drove the truck back to the school. Zoë rode in the back of a truck, staring at the rivets like she had when the same model of truck had carried her to an encampment after Serenity Valley. She felt just as angry and just as betrayed as she had then.

***

It didn't take long for her to form a plan. She'd fuel up back at the school, because she would need energy. She'd raid the armory, take a truck, and go. But there was no way in hell that Zoë was going to sit here and do nothing.

The first part was easy enough, but she should have expected Mal and the others at the classroom serving as an armory. They were right there, waiting at the door, exactly as they would be. Kaylee distressed, wringing her hands, Book calm and even, his feet spread wide and his hands crossed in front of him, his eyes shaded. Jayne leering, just looking for trouble, and Simon, conflicted. River watching with curiosity. She ignored them all.

"Where the _xióngxióng dìyù_ do you think you're going?" Mal asked. He stood in the center, his arms crossed.

"I'm getting them back, sir." Zoë tried to step around him. "Let me go."

"And just how do you propose to do that? Cause I'm thinking you're not getting too far on foot."

"No, sir."

"So you're stealing a truck."

Zoë looked him in the eye. "Yes, sir."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Trucks are easy enough to come by around here, what with all the owners dead." Mal rocked back on his heels. "Which I'm guessing, given our previous jobs, you knew I'd have no problem with. And that begs the question when were you planning on telling the rest of us?"

"Wasn't planning on it, sir. Too risky." But Zoë had to look away.

" _Búdàkěnéng_ the hell that's your reason! You're planning on taking my ship!"

Zoë took a deep breath and looked Mal back in the eye. "So what if I am, sir?"

Mal boggled at her. "It's my ship!"

"So it is. And it's just sitting up there. How else am I going to find them, sir? _Serenity's_ the best bet we've got."

"Be that as it may, it's still a lousy bet!" Mal snapped. "Are you forgetting she's a transport ship? She don't have guns, Zoë!"

"Or a cloaking device," Jayne offered. "Cloaking device would be real useful."

"I don't think those even exist," Simon said.

"Well, they should."

Mal's order to shut up was evident in his glare, but he turned his attention back to Zoë fast and grabbed her by the arms. "Look. I don't like this any better than you do, okay?"

"With all due respect, sir, that's my husband they've got."

"And it's my crew!" Mal practically shouted. "You think that ain't eating me alive? You know me better than that, Zoë."

Zoë tried to break free. "So your ship's more important than your crew? Is that what you're saying, _sir_?"

"No, I'm saying my ship ain't gonna be much good in getting my crew back! If I thought we even had half a chance against them things, I'd be gone already. We'd be flying, looking for them. But how the hell are we even supposed to find them, Zoë? Before the Cylons find us? Because if you think that they aren't going to notice a big shiny spaceship in the sky and shoot it down, then you ain't thinking at all."

Zoë wouldn't acknowledge that she was trembling. "I'm getting him back, Mal. He's got to be alive. He's got to-" he voice broke, and she steadied it. "He's alive," she said, and the knowledge gave her strength. "They want him for something or they would have just killed him, so he's alive. And I'm going to get him back."

"I know. We're going to get them both back. We just gotta figure out how, okay? And _Serenity_ ain't the way to do it." Mal's grip on her biceps loosened, although he didn't release her. "Okay?"

He was asking a lot more than if she was okay. _You understand? Are you going to take my ship? Are you going to disobey my orders anyway?_ She wanted to. She desperately wanted to. She could almost hear Wash calling for her from wherever he was, fell the tug in her soul. But at the same time, Mal was right. _Serenity_ had nothing in her that would stand going up against a fleet of Cylons- not even if she had her hot-shot pilot.

"Okay," she said, and her heart broke with the word.

Mal let her go. The rest of the crew exhaled… she wasn't a threat. They knew it. Zoë wanted to collapse, but not in front of them. She looked at each one of them, an even, determined glance that conveyed everything she wanted it to convey. Then she turned on her heel and stalked away.

Right now, she desperately needed to be alone.

***

She stood outside alone at night, looking at the stars. Wash always felt most at home in the stars. 

"Zoë?"

Anders. Zoë closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then turned to face him. "Hi."

"Hey." Anders had his hands shoved awkwardly in his pockets. "Look, about Wash… I'm sorry."

"Not your fault."

"No. I'm sorry I wouldn't let you go after him. But-"

Zoë cut him off. "It was too dangerous. Ain't much help to him if I'm dead."

"Something like that, yeah." Anders smiled. "Are we good?" He extended his hand.

She didn't want to take it. Anders had stopped her from going after Wash, and she still kind of hated him for it. But she hated even more that he was right. 

Don't go into battle with bad blood. She had to let it go, because she needed Anders if she was ever going to get Wash back. "Yeah," she said, taking his hand. "We're good."

***

The logical thing to do would be to capture one of the humanoid Cylons. Would she be able to get information out of it? Zoë wasn't sure. If it felt pain, she probably could, but did they? They certainly didn't seem to fear death.

She stared down at the plan that she had outlined in the dirt of the courtyard, and then wiped it away irritably. Wouldn't work. 

She was sitting on a hard wood beam that served well enough as a bench, the gray stone of the school at her back. The sun was bright enough that the courtyard almost looked cheerful, if you ignored the blown out windows and the signs of war. Shouts were coming from the other end. Happy shouts- the C-Bucs and some of the others were playing Pyramid, and still others were watching. Zoë ignored them, and started sketching again.

A shadow fell over her work, and she looked up, squinting in irritation. Shepherd Book stood in her light.

"May I join you?"

She shrugged. "If you want." She didn't move over, but Book sat anyway.

"You know, the Scrolls tells us that-"

"Stop right there, Preacher. Not interested in what the Scrolls have to say."

"Yes, I guess that was an inauspicious beginning, wasn't it?" Book sounded more amused than offended. "I thought I would try. I just wondered how you were doing, given the circumstances." He waited for her to answer, but Zoë just started sketching in the sand again. "I want to be of some help to you," Book said when it became clear she wasn't going to speak. "You shouldn't have to go through this alone."

Zoë looked up at him. "You want to be of some help? Help me figure out how to get him- _them_ \- back. That's all I'm interested in right now."

"Zoë." He said her name with great kindness, like a grandfather. "We will try to get them back. But you have to think of your own health right now, too. It's okay to grieve."

"No it isn't. Look, I get what you're trying to do. This is your job, right?" Book nodded. "And this is mine. Now either help me or get the frak out."

Book studied her, and as he did his face changed from preacher to planner. Zoë smiled grimly. The gods weren't any help now. If she wanted Wash back, praying wasn't going to work. She had to do it herself. She only had to figure out how.

***

"Survivors."

"Did you hear? More survivors."

The rumor swept through the cafeteria like wildfire. Zoë was on her feet in an instant. Human survivors. Maybe it was… it could be… it _had_ to be….

It wasn't. She ran out of the school and into the courtyard and saw Anders talking to two people she had never seen before. One was a tall, muscular man and the other was a blonde woman. Not Wash and Inara. In fact, as she took in the details of the man's flight suit and the woman's BDUs, she turned and walked away.

"What? Where are you going?" Mal called after her. 

"They're Colonial Fleet officers," Zoë said. "Nothing useful."

"Oh. Yeah. Didn't notice that." Mal fell into step beside her. "Was hard not to hope, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." Zoë sighed. "Come on. Let's go finish lunch." 

***

Simon shared an infirmary of sorts with the C-Bucs doctor, also confusingly called Simon, although all similarities ended in name and profession. Like everyone else, Zoë had to make a regular visit for anti-radiation meds and surprisingly enough, she found she preferred their Simon over the C-Bucs one. He had a much defter hand with a needle. When she went down for her shot that afternoon, the Colonial pilot was sitting on Simon's examination table. 

"Zoë. I'll be right with you." Simon barely turned around, and Zoë settled down on the other Simon's table to wait. Oddly enough, being in Simon's presence was comforting these days. He had no idea how to talk about Wash, so he didn't. He didn't talk much at all. His silence was the best balm her soul could have asked for.

He wasn't exactly talking much to the pilot, either. Up close, Zoë could see that his patient looked worn and drawn. There were bloodstains and dust on his flight suit and cuts on his face. When his eyes met hers, he looked scared and exhausted and extremely grateful just to see another human. Despite herself, it made her soften toward him. A little.

"You been alone all this time?"

The man shifted his eyes away. "Not the whole time, but enough of it. You been with this group the whole time?"

"Yeah."

"You're a Pyramid player?"

Zoë snorted at that one. "Not likely."

He smiled back and extended his hand around Simon, who was still working. "I'm Karl Agathon. Helo."

Zoë didn't take his hand. "Zoë."

"While it's nice that you two are making friends, I am still in the middle of a medical examination," Simon reminded them. "Zoë, you can either wait and let me concentrate, or you can come back in a half hour."

A half hour was too long a time to wait. Zoë slid off the table. "I'll come back, Doc." She headed for the door.

"See you around, Zoë," Helo called.

She didn't answer.

***

The woman's name was Kara Thrace, but apparently she was called Starbuck. She was a Viper pilot, and Helo was a Raptor pilot with the Fleet before the attacks. Apparently they'd just recently met up again, but there weren't a whole lot of other details circling the camp.

"I wonder if they're sweeties," Kaylee said from under the truck as Zoë handed her a part. "They look good together, don't you think?"

"If they're together, they won't be much longer," Zoë said. "Heard tell she was playing a pretty intense game of Pyramid with Anders."

Kaylee's squeak was high-pitched, but it was almost impossible to be annoyed at it. Zoë shook her head in amusement, and Kaylee worked her way out from under the truck. "I was thinking," she began, "we should talk to them. See if they can help us find Wash and Inara."

"They aren't going to be able to help." 

"But they're military! They've got all sorts of training and tactics and-"

"They're two people who have been on the run this whole time," Zoë said flatly, all traces of amusement gone. "They don't have resources and they don't have secret powers. They're just frakking lucky."

Kaylee shrugged. "Maybe luck is what we need."

"Rather rely on something a little more real." Zoë dusted off her hands. "I'm going to go check the weapon stores for tomorrow." She stalked away before Kaylee could say anything else.

***

"So what do you think?" Mal asked, sitting down beside Zoë in the cafeteria.

"What do I think about what, sir?" 

"These new people. Think they're on the level?"

"That they're human? Yes, sir. But I think there's a lot they ain't saying."

"Yeah. I'm sure about that. They're in some secret meeting with Anders right now."

Zoë turned to face him. "If it's secret, how do you know about it, sir?"

"Had my ear pressed to the door till they kicked me out," Mal said flippantly, in that sort of way that Zoë couldn't be sure if he was serious or joking. Knowing Mal, it really could be either, and if he was eavesdropping, Zoë didn't blame him. She would have, too, if she'd known this meeting was happening. 

Mal rubbed a hand over his face. "Haven't asked because I know the answer, but you holding up all right, Zoë?"

"I'm still here."

"Yeah." He sat back. "Me too." For a moment, Mal's face fell into its serious, harsh lines and he was lost deep in thought. But he snapped out of it fast and leaned on his elbows. "Listen. I've been giving some thought to your idea of capturing one of the humanoid Cylons. Talked to that Helo guy about it a little."

"You talked to him, sir?" 

"Well, yeah. Says he's had a few run-ins with them. He says that they do feel pain, so if we get one, we might be able to convince it to tell us where Inara and Wash are. So there's that."

"Yeah." 

Mal cocked his head. "You okay, Zoë? Is there a problem?"

"Not a problem, sir." But Mal knew her too well.

"I know he's a Colonial soldier, and I gotta say, I'm not too fond of that fact neither. But these days, anyone who's against the Cylons is a friend of ours, I guess."

"I know, sir. Don't mean I have to like him."

"Yeah. I know what you mean." Mal sighed. "Still, he and Thrace might be the best hope we've gotten since this whole thing happened. At least they actually know how to fight. They might be able to help us plan something."

"We'll see. Don't want to get my hopes up."

"Yeah." Mal stood up. His hand rested on Zoë's shoulder for a moment longer than it needed to, asking silent comfort. Zoë didn't meet his eyes, but she covered his hand with her own for. When she dropped her hand, Mal left her alone to her thoughts.

***

Sleep was still possible, but only when she was so worn out that she didn't have another option. Tonight Zoë was outside in the courtyard, warming her hands by a fire in a trashcan and looking up at the stars in the night sky.

"Be a hell of a lot easier to be up there," someone said. Helo. He came closer, rubbing his hands. "Mind if I join you? It's a cold night."

"No reason for me to say no," Zoë said evenly.

Helo extended his hands to the warmth of the fire, bouncing a little on his toes. "Hard to believe there are still other people alive. I haven't seen another human since the attacks. Makes you wonder how many more are out there."

"Mmm."

"I mean, it's a big planet, you know? There's got to be more people. But even in the time I've been here… nothing." 

"Yeah."

Helo huffed in the cool air. "Listen, Mal told me that your husband went missing. I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. I mean, I know it's… it's frakked up."

"Frakked up is an understatement." Zoë didn't want to talk about sympathy. "Don't suppose you've got any good ideas on how to get him back?"

"Not really." Helo shook his head. "Your idea of getting a human-looking Cylon is probably the place to start. Can't really plan anything until you know what you're fighting."

"Or where you're going." Zoë sighed. "I think that's what's killing me most of all. He could be on the other side of the world for all I know."

"He could be, but I can't see why the Cylons would send a prisoner of war around the world," Helo mused.

Zoë shrugged. "Colonial Fleet did."

"Huh?"

"In the Tauron Civil War." Zoë could barely keep from smirking. "Colonial Fleet sent us from Serenity Valley to Kastorias."

"You were at the Kastorias Camp?" Helo drew back. "You don't look old enough."

"Thanks." Zoë smiled wryly. "I am."

"But that was, what? Seven years ago?" 

"Five. The camp, anyway."

"Man. I remember that. I was just entering the Fleet when that war was going on. I was scared to death I was going to get sent there, and scared to death I wouldn't. I wanted to fight, you know? But the Third Tauron Civil War… that was something else again."

"Thanks for the recap." 

"Oh. Yeah." Helo caught on that he wasn't being the most sensitive. "Guess that's why you don't like me too much, huh?"

Zoë shrugged. "It's a new war, and a new enemy. It just takes a bit to get used to the fact that we're on the same side."

"Yeah." Helo turned his hands so the back of them was facing the flames. "Do you think… I was never at Tauron, but say I was. You think you could ever forgive someone who was there? Fighting against you?"

"Work with people who fought for the Colonies all the time."

"That's not the same thing."

"Guess not." Zoë thought about it. "Guess it would depend. Who they were, what they did, what they want now…."

"And if it was someone you loved? Someone like your husband?"

"Can't know. Wash was never in an army, and if he was, he wouldn't be the man he is."

"Guess so. Don't know why I asked, anyway." Helo sighed. "I think it's a question with no real answer."

"Lots of those around."

"Yeah." Helo shook it off. "Hey, listen, I'm going to try to get some sleep or something, but if you want to meet for breakfast, we can try to hash out some details of how to capture a Cylon." 

Zoë nodded. "Sounds good. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Helo flashed a smile. It lit up his face and then faded, leaving him looking tired and bitter. "Well, have a good night."

"You too." Zoë turned back to her flames. She didn't know how much Helo could help her, but she was willing to find out. After all, they were on the same side in this war. She just had to keep reminding herself of that.

***

"Zoë! Come on!" Mal waved her over. "We've got a mission."

Zoë jogged over to where Mal was waiting near a truck. "What about the others, sir?"

"Anders said just you and me this time."

Interested, Zoë hopped in. "Any chance this is a rescue mission, sir?"

"Don't know. Apparently, we're headed to some airstrip. That's all Anders will say."

Zoë noticed that both Kara and Helo were with them. That was interesting. And an airstrip… she stepped closer. "Sir? Should we let them know about _Serenity_?"

"Not yet. I think they're fixing to steal a Cylon ship. Opens a world of possibilities, don't it, for getting Inara and Wash back?"

"Once we know where they are." The truck lurched into motion, and Zoë settled down for the ride. "Please tell me you brought my favorite gun."

Mal tossed it to her. "There you go."

"Excellent." Zoë settled back in the bed of the truck. It was a bright day outside, and no matter what they were getting up to, stealing a Cylon ship was bigger than anything they'd attempted before. 

Finally, the trucks lurched to a stop. Anders hopped out of the truck in front and came back to them. "Set up a perimeter," he ordered. "Especially the flank. We're near the airstrip. I don't expect trouble, but you never can tell." He headed off to confer with a C-Buc named Sue-Shaun, Helo, and Kara, the four of them looking at a map on the hood of a truck, obviously discussing the airstrip.

"Looks like we're really going to do it," Zoë said, watching the brush. The area they were in was out of the city and surrounded by forest. It would be pretty if it wasn't an irradiated mess. The world was completely still, except the wind rustling through the trees and the rest of the resistance members with them moving about.

"Thing is," Zoë said, watching the area intently, "even if we manage to get a ship, we still don't know where we're going."

"Yeah, but it will be a lot easier to search places," Mal pointed out. "We'll be able to at least get close enough to determine if they hold prisoners there. Wonder how many prisoners of war they've even got."

"Good question." Zoë hadn't thought of that before. "You'd think that-"

"Get down!" Sue-Shaun shouted from the other side of the trucks, just before the sound of guns opening fire. Zoë and Mal looked at each other, and both sprinted over to the other side, taking cover behind the truck they'd been in.

"Hey!" Anders called to them from where he'd hit the ground by the other truck. "There's a gas station about a mile back that way, you know where I'm talking about?" Zoë nodded. "Rendezvous there, okay? Start getting everyone the frak out of here, and we'll cover you."

"What about the ship?"

"We aren't going to get down there! Go!"

Zoë swore, but one quick glance told her that Anders was right. She turned away from the trucks. "You heard the man," she shouted to the person nearest to her. "Let's go!" She waited until the others had started, and then she and Mal began to run.

"They following us?" Mal asked as they ran down the dirt road.

Zoë glanced over her shoulder. "Can't tell yet, sir." Her breath was starting to come hard. It galled her to have to run away from the possibility of a ship, but at least they hadn't gotten close yet. Maybe they'd be able to try again. She didn't think this airstrip was usually that heavily guarded, if she could remember right….

"I gotta stop," Mal said after a few minutes. He slowed to a walk, and Zoë realized that they couldn't even hear gunfire anymore. She slowed to his pace, shifting her gun and watching around her. The woods were once again silent. 

"Guess they didn't give chase."

"Guess not." Mal frowned. "You'd think they would. Wonder what they wanted."

It gave Zoë a bad feeling, because the last time the Cylons _had_ taken someone. "Hope they didn't get someone else."

"Yeah. Can't say the same thought didn't occur to me."

Zoë frowned. "Sir. Should we go back? If they did take someone, maybe we could follow."

Mal thought about it a moment, then shook his head. "Would have been a great idea if we'd thought about it sooner," he said. "But you saw how fast those things got away when they took Inara and Wash. If they've taken someone, they're long gone by now. Besides, we don't even know if they did." He sighed. "Wish we'd thought of it back there, though."

"Yeah." The gas station Anders told them to rendezvous at was coming into view. "Well, guess we'll find out soon enough."

By the time they got into the station, most of the people that had come with them were inside. Mal opened a powerless cooler and pulled out a bottle of water, but Zoë took up guard position by the door. "Everyone here?" she asked one of the others.

"Almost. Still waiting on Anders and the group he was with."

Zoë peered down the road. "Looks like they're coming." She watched them intently as they approached, then frowned. "At least, looks like Anders and Helo. I don't see Kara or Sue-Shaun." 

"Maybe they're a little further behind."

Zoë was hoping, but that hope was dashed as soon as Anders and Helo came in. "Kara and Sue-Shaun here already?" Anders asked, looking around. No one answered. "Frak!" He turned and punched the pyramid of oil that the long-dead shop owner had arranged, and the containers came crashing to the ground. " _FRAK_."

Mal and Zoë exchanged glances, both of them thinking the same thing. Zoë closed her eyes.

"What do we do?" someone asked, and Zoë's eyes snapped back open. 

"We're going to have to wait," Helo said. "It looked like the Cylons weren't following us, but we've got to make them think we're gone. They won't keep patrolling that little patch forever. We'll go back in an hour, look for them."

"We can't wait an hour," Anders insisted. "If either of them are hurt or bleeding out-"

"We can't help them much if we get shot up ourselves," Zoë said. It killed her to say it, because she knew exactly what Anders was feeling, but damn it, it was the truth. "Helo's right. Give it an hour."

Anders sat down on the floor with a thud, cradling his head in his hands. And Zoë couldn't help thinking that maybe this was a chance, a chance to get all of them back. Maybe.

***

"Anders, we must have been over this line ten times already," Helo said. 

The signs of the fight were still there. Bullets, broken branches, signs of scuffle. But no Kara and no Sue-Shaun. Zoë walked slowly, placing her feet carefully and looking for signs of a trail. They should have brought Jayne. He was a better tracker than any of them, and it was amazing how lightly those mechanical Cylons could move. 

Anders was trying to retrace Kara's actions. "She must have taken a bullet. She’s right here by the vehicles."

"Ok, she would have got up and crawled the frak up out of here." Helo sighed. "Hey, we have to search the entire area again."

"I told you we shouldn’t have pulled back so fast. I though she was with us."

Helo nearly threw up his hands with frustration. "Anders, we got ambushed. Okay? We all got separated. There’s nothing we could have done about it. Kara, of all people would understand. Let’s just find her." 

Zoë heard something and stilled, holding her hand up. There was a rustling in the trees. There were no animals left living, not on an irradiated planet like this. The rustling grew louder, and Zoë lifted her gun, along with several of the others. A woman emerged from behind a tree, her hands up. Zoë didn't know which fact hit her harder- the fact that the woman was one of the Cylon models that they'd seen, or that she was wearing the tanks that Colonial soldiers wore. She had her hands up in surrender, but no one put their guns down. 

"I know where Starbuck is," the Cylon said. 

Zoë's eyes widened. She looked to Mal, who was wearing a similar expression. "Think it's a trap, sir?" she whispered.

"Not sure. No one's shooting at us yet. That's good." 

"Sharon?" Helo asked. "Where have you been?"

"Sharon?" Mal whispered. "Things just got a little more interesting."

"Tracking you," the Cylon said.

"Who is she?" Anders demanded. 

Helo lowered his gun and pushed Anders' gun down. "She's with us," he said. 

"You're the father of my child, Helo. I'm not going to lose you," the woman said.

Mal choked.

"Oh yeah," Zoë said, lowering her gun. "Things just got a lot more interesting."

***

They returned to the high school to plan. Anders didn't like the idea, and frankly, neither did Zoë- it might compromise their position if this Sharon wasn't as trustworthy as Helo said. But they needed to reload and rearm, as well as get more people for any sort of rescue attempt to be successful. They had no real choice.

Anders, Helo, Zoë, Mal, and a few others gathered around a table in the cafeteria. "She's being held here," Sharon said, pointing at a map. "It's an old hospital." She looked at Zoë and Mal. "Your friends are almost certainly being held there as well. I can't be positive, since I only checked the data for Starbuck, but it would be logical. It's the only facility around here."

"How guarded is this place?" Mal asked. 

"It's not going to be easy to get in," Sharon admitted. "But the facility is mainly guarded by the human models. They can be deadly, but they can also be shot. And while they resurrect-"

"Wait, they resurrect?" Mal said. "What the frak?"

"-It takes thirty six hours," Sharon finished. "We'll be long gone by then."

"Let's get back to this resurrecting thing," Mal said. "When did this happen?"

"There's no time to explain it." Sharon pulled the map closer to her, and Zoë put a hand on Mal's arm. She didn’t like the sounds of this either, but they'd seen it themselves- when the humanoid Cylons went down, they stayed down. "There's an entrance to the north that backs up to a forest. That's going to be our best chance of cover."

"Why don't we go at night?" Zoë asked.

"Two reasons. One, the human Cylons will be gone, and there will be more Centurions guarding the place." Zoë nodded. "But more importantly, the human Cylons come in a heavy raider. If we go during the day, I can steal that."

"That's great, but what do we need a ship for?" one of the others asked. 

Anders and Helo exchanged glances. "Partly for cover," Helo said. "We can escape a lot better if we've got a ship covering us. But…." He looked at Anders.

Anders took a deep breath before answering. "Look. I don't want any of this leaving this room, okay? It's too big, and it would get people's hopes up too much." Zoë's heart started beating a little faster, even though she wasn't sure why. "Kara hasn't been on Caprica all this time."

"What, like she came from one of the other Colonies?" Mal asked.

"She came from a fleet of survivors." Zoë's eyes widened. "About sixty some-odd ships, and almost fifty thousand survivors."

"Wǒ liè yú zhèijiàn, you're frakking kidding me."

"I know." Anders grinned. "I find it kind of hard to believe myself." The grin slipped off his face. "But we can't tell people yet."

"Well, why not?" Mal asked. "Sure would make people feel a lot better."

"Not if we can't get to them," Zoë said slowly, the truth dawning on her. "They don't know we're here, do they?"

"No," Helo said. "Kara came back on reconnaissance mission. She didn't expect to find survivors- not even me. But if we can get a ship and get back to the Fleet, we can let the Fleet know people are here. They can send a rescue mission back."

"Where is this Fleet?" Mal asked.

"I don't know. Well beyond the red line." Helo spread his hands.

"Do you really think they'll come back for us?" Zoë asked. "And do you think they'll succeed if they try?"

"Kara's got some pull with the Old Man. If anyone can get him to listen, it's her."

He wasn't sure. Zoë's heart plummeted. For one amazing moment, it looked like there might be some sort of end in sight. But now…."

"We can only send a few people," Anders said. "I guess we'll hold a lottery or something. I'm not sure what the fairest way to do it will be. But if we can get some people out of this hellhole and give them a chance at surviving, well…."

"Right." Zoë sat down. Just a few people would survive. Anders saw her disappointment. He sat down next to her and put a hand on her arm.

"You can see why we didn't want to tell people. It's just… it's too much. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but-

"Maybe it doesn't," Mal interrupted. "Sharon. The raiders… am I mistaken, or do they have FTL drives?"

Zoë's mouth fell open, and her heart immediately lifted again. Sharon nodded. "They do." 

"It still doesn’t matter," Helo said. "We can only fit ten people in one, tops."

Mal ignored that. "And how long would it take to jump back to this Fleet?"

Helo shrugged. "I don't know. Kara said about three jumps. Maybe a couple hours? Twenty-four at the most."

"Excellent." Mal grinned. "I'm afraid that we haven't been entirely truthsome with you, Anders."

"What do you mean?"

"Me and Zoë and the rest of my crew, well, we're… what's the word, Zoë?"

"Criminals, sir?" 

"I was thinking smugglers, but thank you. We've got a ship hidden up in the mountains."

"A ship?" Anders said.

"Yeah. We were making a drop on Caprica when the Cylons hit. Didn't seem worth mentioning before this, because she ain't got an FTL and she ain't got weapons. But she's big enough to haul a herd of cattle, which means we should be able to fit everyone on this rock in no problem, at least for a short trip. If we can steal that ship and you can give us a few hours without the Cylons shooting at us, my mechanic should be able to move the FTL drive over to _Serenity_ no problem."

Anders face lit up. "You're kidding. No way- you can't be serious." He looked to Zoë for confirmation, and she nodded.

"Holy frakking shit," Anders said, laughing. "We might get off this rock after all."

"But not until we get them out, first," Zoë said. She turned back to the map. "I'm not leaving here without Wash."

Helo caught her eye. "We'll get him back," he promised. "All four of them. Let's finish planning this."

***

"So that's the situation," Mal said, looking around at the small group. "Anders is asking for volunteers to go on the rescue, but I'm doing some assigning of my own. Kaylee, you're going straight up to _Serenity_."

"Captain, if you need me to get Inara and Wash I can-"

"I need you to be up there getting _Serenity_ ready to take on an FTL drive, okay?" Mal said. Kaylee nodded. "And what's more, I don't need you getting shot. You get shot, no one else is going to be able to put that drive in, and then where does that leave us, right? And it goes without saying that you'll be looking after River." Mal turned to Simon. "Doc, according to Sharon, the people we're saving might be needing medical care right away. She wants to brief you personally. Says it's too important to relay through me."

Simon twined his fingers together awkwardly. "And you trust her? Even though she's a Cylon?"

"Might be a mistake on my part, but yeah. I trust her enough for this. So you go talk to her and find out what you've got to do. Shepherd, you're gonna stay with me, and Jayne, you're gonna go with Zoë. Sharon says the men are in one place and the women are in two others, so we're gonna have to be ready to split up."

"If I may ask," Shepherd Book said, "what are they doing in this place?"

"Don't rightly know. Sharon's being kind of cagey about it, and I suspect it's because she don't want us knowing. I'm not pushing her 'cause it don't matter- we've still got to get them out of there, even if they're feeding them peeled grapes. Let's just assume the worst and get them all out of there. You got that?" There were murmurs of assent. "Good. Now let's get moving."

***

"At least it's not raining," Zoë said as she hopped up in the truck. "I hate shooting in the rain."

"Nice weather does make things a little easier," Mal agreed.

"Course, it makes us plenty easy to see," Jayne said. "Hey. What's she doing?" He pointed at River, who was climbing up in the truck.

"River." Simon hurried over. "Why aren't you with Kaylee?"

River was smiling. "Red rover, red rover, it's time to come over… I hear them calling." She snapped into something like clarity. "I'm coming, too."

"Oh, no. This is a rescue mission. I ain't got time for this-" the truck lurched into motion, and Mal burst into a long string of swearing. "Hey!" he shouted. "HEY! We've got the wrong person on the truck! Do you hear me?" But either no one heard him or the driver ignored him. 

"Well, that's just great," Mal said, slumping back against the wall. "This is not what I asked for."

"She can stay in the truck," Zoë said. "River, honey? Can you do that? Just stay in the truck?"

"If you reach home before 'it' tags you, you're safe."

"I'm going to take that as a yes," Mal said.

"Don't sound like a yes," Jayne said. "Sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me."

"I don't care. I need a yes, so I'm gonna take it as one. You got it?"

Zoë closed her eyes and shut them out. They had to be getting close now, and she needed to focus. _Just a few more minutes, baby_ , she told Wash silently. _I'm getting you out of there._

***

They parked the trucks a quarter mile away. River seemed to understand the situation well enough to stay in the truck- Zoë could only hope she'd actually stay there. The group grabbed their guns and made their way through the forest until they came to the hospital. The hospital was a large, pretty stone structure, with two staircases leading up to the main entrance. Zoë hated it on sight. 

"Looks like three Centurions," Anders whispered. "You guys ready?" There were murmurs of assent. "Good. Let's do this."

They were just about to walk out and start firing when a figure appeared on the stairs- a blond woman in a colorless shift. "Hold your fire!" Helo shouted. "That's Starbuck!"

Zoë pulled her gun up sharply, grinning. "Frak. I'm impressed."

"That's Starbuck," Helo repeated. "So that's one down. Jayne, you go with the others to get the women. I'll go with Zoë to get Wash."

"Don't care where I go, long as I get to shoot some toasters." Jayne cocked his gun. "Let's go."

Zoë looked back at the hospital just in time to see a man come out- a man who looked exactly like Simon O'Neill. Starbuck killed him without hesitation, and stumbled further down the steps. On some level it occurred to Zoë that their camp was harboring a Cylon, but there was no time to process that now. A Centurion appeared and began firing, and Zoë started firing back.

There was a roar of engines, and a small, clunky ship lurched into the air, turning and firing at the Centurion. "That's it!" Anders shouted. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!!!"

Zoë ran, her feet barely touching the ground, Helo at her side. Another one of those O'Neill lookalikes came at her and she fired without hesitation, not even watching as he dropped to the ground. She led the way up the stairs and slammed her shoulder into the door, getting it the frak out of her way.

Inside, the hospital looked a lot more decrepit than the outside would suggest. It wasn't nearly as modern as some of the hospitals she'd seen, even the one they'd been in on the other side of Delphi. Not that she cared. She turned left and dashed down the hall. Sharon had said the double doors at the end. She burst through the doors and then stopped so suddenly that Helo ran into her. The force of the impact knocked her a step forward, but she caught herself without thinking.

"Frak," she gasped, taking in the horror of the room.

Beds were arranged in a star pattern around a big, blinking machine. On each bed lay a man, each of them hooked to wires and machines, and each wearing a hospital gown. Zoë turned to Helo. "What the hell?"

"Breeding program," Helo answered, looking sick. "Is Wash here?"

Zoë had already found him. "Wash. Wash, baby, can you here me?" Wash lay there with his eyes closed, pale but otherwise looking unharmed. "Wash." There was no response. Zoë put her hands on his cheeks. They were warm and flushed. She breathed out a sigh of relief, then examined the wires and tubes. 

"Better hurry," Helo said, edging closer. "They'll be coming soon."

The wires were just monitors, held on with medical tape. Zoë peeled them off quickly, and noticed that Wash didn't even wince. He was under something, then. One tube was an IV and easy to disconnect, the other….

"Oh gods," Helo said, when Zoë traced it to its source. 

Well, Wash was passed out. Hoping the catheter wasn't anchored in any particular way, Zoë tugged gently. To her relief it moved easily.

There was a noise outside. 

"Heads up," Helo said, cocking his gun and aiming it at the door. "We're going to have company in just a minute."

"Can we hold them off?" Zoë asked. "There's a lot of other people here."

"I'd like to, that's for sure." Helo looked around the room. "Don't know how well we'll be able to, though."

The catheter was out, and Wash still wasn't responding. Zoë looked frantically around the room. "Is there any chance we can get all the Cylons out of here?"

"Not a chance in hell, you know that. They've probably already got some sort of reserves coming in. We've got to get out of here."

She hated it, and she could see on his face that Helo hated it, too. But he was right. "You take Wash," Zoë said. "I'll shoot. Let's get out of here."

Helo heaved Wash over his shoulder, and Zoë aimed her gun at the door. The door swung open, and a tall, thin blonde woman came in with a gun pointed right at her. Zoë shot, and the blonde woman dropped. "Let's move," she ordered Helo.

They ran into two more Cylons- one of the O'Neill types and one that looked like Sharon. Zoë shot them both, without hesitation. They might look like people she knew, but they'd kept Wash here for a week. They were going down.

"We’ve just got to get across that open space," Zoë shouted over her shoulder. "Shouldn't be too bad if Sharon's still holding it with the Raider."

Zoë threw the door open, and the sunlight streamed in. There was no sound of gunfire from the outside, and when she looked up, the Raider was still there.

"Almost there, honey," she told Wash, who was still hanging limply over Helo's shoulder. "Just hang on." 

The door banged open at the other end if the hall, and Zoë found herself staring at the barrel of a gun. "Jayne, don't shoot."

"How do I know it's you and you're not a Cylon like that doctor?" Jayne asked.

"Because it's me." Zoë saw Mal coming out of the room, Inara in his arms. "What about Sue-Shaun?" Zoë asked.

"She's dead, like the others in her room. So are two more of those doctor things. So may I suggest we get the frak out of here before any more come?"

"Best suggestion I've heard all day," Zoë said. She held the door for the others. As they left, she noticed that Simon- their Simon- was incredibly pale. "You okay, doc?"

"We had to leave them…." He looked back over his shoulder.

Zoë put a hand on his shoulder understandingly. "Yeah. We do. Let's move." She shoved him, and Simon stumbled after the others.

She wished she could blow this place to hell, along with everyone in it. The inmates would probably be better off, and the place where Wash was held prisoner would be _gone_. But that was wishful thinking, and there was no time for that. She slammed the door behind her and ran down the stairs.

***

Kara had made it back to the trucks and was lying on the bed of it, clutching her side. Wash was beside her, and he was still asleep, River perched over him. Zoë jumped up into the truck and checked his pulse. Still strong and steady. She relaxed a little. "How you holding up?" she asked Kara.

"Been better," Kara said, "but been a lot frakking worse, too."

"I'll say. You need anything?"

"A gun would be nice."

Zoë smiled and tossed Kara the one she was holding, then reached down and grabbed another. "Just a few more hours and we'll be off this rock. We'll have the doc get you into the infirmary as soon as we get to _Serenity_."

"Think I've had enough of doctors and infirmaries," Kara said, propping herself up better in the truck bed. "Last one was a Cylon."

"Pretty sure this one's not, although that would explain a lot." Zoë saw Mal settling Inara onto the other truck. "Brace yourself- I think we're ready to go."

The trucks lurched into motion. Above them, the Raider rose higher in the sky, and then blinked out of view. Faster than light indeed. Zoë never got over watching that. She knelt in the truck bed, the metal digging into her knees, scanning the road behind them. 

"They're gonna come after us," Kara predicted. 

"I know."

The truck bounced over ruts in the dirt road. Zoë glanced back at Wash, who looked like he might have moved. She wondered how long it would take whatever they gave him to wear off. 

"Heads up," Kara said. 

Zoë jerked her attention back to the road behind him. "Shénshèng hóuzi qiú

"I have no idea what you just said, but I'm pretty sure I agree. They must have a garage of the bastards nearby or something." Kara struggled to sit up, and supported her gun on the back of the truck. The truck was accelerating- the driver must have seen the nightmare in his mirrors.

Someone crouched next to her. Zoë didn't even think of it for a second, until she realized that there was only one person it could be. "River. Get down and get out of the way."

"The tin soldiers come marching," River said. "One by one, two by two."

"What the frak?"

"Don't ask." Zoë glanced at River again. Far from obeying, River had picked up a gun. "River!"

"Tin soldiers all fall down," River said, and suddenly she was in flight, vaulting over the tailgate and onto the road. 

"River!" Zoë shouted. "Get back here!" Not that that would do any good, but… 

River stood her ground, the gun held up on her shoulder. Then, when the Centurions got closer, she began to fire.

Zoë and the others had learned long ago that there were spots that would cause a Centurion to fall more easily than others. Of course, those spots were never easy to hit. River aimed, she fired, and one by one the Centurions began to fall.

"Frak me," Kara said, staring wide-eyed at the damage.

Zoë was staring, too. "My thoughts exactly."

The truck had stopped. Zoë hadn't even been fully aware of it until the last Centurion fell, and River ran back. She jumped into the truck lightly, like a dancer, and smiled at Kara and Zoë. "They all fall."

"Yeah. They sure do." Zoë's breathing was starting to return to normal. She shook her head. "Let's move it," she shouted up to the front of the truck. "Before they find us again."

***

It was an hour later when she heard the voice she most wanted to hear. The truck was still navigating the dirt roads, climbing the mountain towards _Serenity._ Wash opened his eyes. "Zoë?"

"Yeah, baby. I'm here." Zoë squeezed Wash's hand. "You're safe."

"Is there a reason my insides are being shaken out?"

"We're in a truck, and the road is bad." Zoë stroked Wash's hair back from his face. "How are you feeling?"

"Lousy. Everything hurts. Especially…" his head jerked up, his eyes wide with panic. "They were trying to get at- is everything- is everything still there?"

"Far as I can tell." Zoë pulled his head back down. "We'll have the doc check you over when we get back up to _Serenity._ Our Simon," she clarified, when she saw the panicked expression on his face hadn't disappeared. 

"Oh. Good." He laid back and closed his eyes, and laced his fingers through hers. "You're not going anywhere, are you?"

"Not without you. It's all going to be okay."

"Good. That's exactly…" Wash yawned. "Exactly what I needed to hear."

***

_Serenity_ was waiting for them at the top of the mountain. "Oh man," Wash said, sagging against Zoë. "It's so good to see the old girl again."

"It is. You think you're going to be able to fly her with an FTL drive?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Wash still looked woozy, but he was regaining his color and becoming more coherent. "Of course I can fly her."

"Figured." Zoë tightened her arm around Wash's shoulder. "I shouldn't have even had to ask." The truck came to a stop, and Jayne and Book came out to help. "How's Inara?" Zoë asked them.

"She's in the infirmary," Book answered. "It was quite the shock to her system, being disconnected from whatever they had her connected to. But Simon seems to think that she'll be okay."

"Good." 

"You know what I'd like right about now?" Wash said as Zoë helped him out of the truck. "Pants. I could really go for some pants."

"I know." Zoë laughed. "Come on. Let's go home."

***

Almost all of the resistance was down in the cargo hold, but Zoë had no intention of staying down there. She left the crowd control to Book and headed up to the cockpit. 

The cockpit of _Serenity_ was filled with wires, cables, parts, and people. Kaylee was under the console taking tools from Sharon, and Jayne was talking to Helo and Kara, who probably should have been in the infirmary but was also the only one who knew where this Fleet was. Zoë helped Wash up the step and over to his seat. When Wash sat down in the pilots' chair, his face lit up with relief and happiness. Zoë smiled and rubbed his shoulder, and he caught her hand. 

"So this is a smuggling ship," Helo said, looking around. 

"You sound disappointed," Zoë laughed.

"Well, yeah. I expected it to look a little more… illegal."

"If you look in the cabinets, we might have some stolen crown jewels or something," Wash suggested.

"Really?" Jayne opened the cabinet. Helo and Kara both snickered, and Wash rolled his eyes in Zoë's direction. She couldn't help laughing. She knew he was putting up a brave front and there was a lot he had to deal with, but having him here and ready to leave Caprica was more than she'd thought would happen. 

"Ugh. Don't like so many people on my ship," Mal said, making his way into the cockpit. "Think I liked it better when it was cows."

"At least people make less of a mess," Wash offered, then considered. "I hope."

"Yeah, well, if we don't get this lot to this Fleet or whatever, we might find ourselves dealing with that sort of mess," Mal said. "How's it coming, Kaylee?"

Kaylee pulled herself out from under a console. "It's not pretty, but we should be patched in, Captain."

"She don't have to be pretty. She just has to work."

"She'll do it." 

"Good." He looked at Kara. "Well? What do we do next?"

"We get off this rock," Kara said. "I think everyone's ready to get home."

Wash flicked the switches and _Serenity_ began to lift off. The ground got smaller and smaller beneath them. 

Kara leaned over and punched some numbers into a control box that was perched precariously on the edge of a console, and it felt like the whole ship held its breath.

"Jump!"

Zoë blinked, and they were out of the atmosphere and trees of Caprica and into the peaceful calm black of space.

"Well," Mal said, his grin stretching from ear to ear, "ain't that a sight for sore eyes."

"Sure is, sir." There was a sincere fervor in Wash's voice that made Zoë's heart clench. "Too bad we can't just stay here." 

"Only if we want eighty-something people down in the cargo hold to go space mad and kill us all," Mal said. "Kara, get us where we're going."

Jumping was not a new sensation to Zoë, but it was something she hadn't done in years. By the end of the fourth jump, her stomach was definitely queasy. And by the end of the fifth….

"Never thought I'd be so gorram happy to see a battlestar," she said to Mal as they saw the bulk of the _Galactica_ in front of them.

"You can say that again." Mal shook his head. "Let's head on in. No matter what's lurking in there, it can't be worse than what we left behind." He looked at her. "You ready for this?"

"We're off Caprica," Zoë said, squeezing Wash's shoulder again. "I'm ready for anything."


End file.
